From 13 October to 15 November, the Dutch National Ballet will be performing its new production of the classical romantic ballet Giselle, directed by Rachel Beaujean and Ricardo Bustamante. As is nearly always the case in the company’s productions of full-length classical ballets, the cast for this production will include students from the Dutch National Ballet Academy (NBA). In this case, four students from NBA 4 and 5 have been selected to perform, as have ten 8 and 9-year-olds from the pre-NBA programme.

‘They’re all thrilled and very excited,’ explains Marieke van der Heijden, the pre-NBA programme’s senior teacher who is preparing the 8 and 9-year-olds for their appearances in Giselle. ‘The children are still very young and they’ve already got their hands full learning the choreography and counting the music.’
Rehearsals for Giselle started right at the start of the new school year. There are two casts, each consisting of three ‘village children’ and a ‘young lady.’ ‘What the village children are looking forward to most is when they get to sit on the farmer’s wagon in the first act of the ballet. They think that’s so cool! For the young lady, by far the most nerve-wracking moment is when she has to walk down an incline in high heels.’

As well as the younger children, four boys from NBA 4 and 5 will have roles as hunting party pages in Giselle. They are Chris Kokkeel, Phillipe Magelijns, Otto van Sloun and Charlie Wit. They will be rehearsing beforehand with Fred Berlips, a teacher of classical ballet at the NBA.